SXSW here I come!

(I wrote this yesterday, 3/16!)

As I’m writing this, I’m on a flight down to Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival! I went for the first time last year through my college’s radio station and it was so much fun, and I’m excited to be going again this year! Last year I had a badge which allowed me access to all the official showcases and panels, though unfortunately I don’t have one this year. But what’s great about SXSW is there are so many “unofficial” parties during the day and at night that you don’t even need a badge or wristband to have a great time and see all the bands! I’m also staying with my friend Mai which will be a lot of fun too! So be prepared for my good time updates coming from Austin this week!

(Side note – Eugene Mirman was sitting in the row diagonally across from me on the plane! As I was leaving after picking up my bag I told him that I love Delocated! Haha. He was really nice and I’ll probably see him hosting or performing this week!)

If you’re a music fan at all, I suggest that you check out the unofficial SXSW Artist Torrent that has one song by just about all the artists playing at SXSW this year. I downloaded the first two torrents that has just over 1,000 songs total. I wish I had started listening to it sooner than just a few days before leaving because just getting through the first few letters of the alphabet I’ve found some good songs. I would also suggest anyone who makes mix tapes to download this torrent, as I’m sure you can find a few great songs that would fit any theme, and make you seem like a musical genius.

Speaking of mix tapes, I attended the Sound Fix Tape Exchange for the second time last month (anyone in NYC they’re on the first Sunday of the month, now at Coco66 in Greenpoint. They used to be held at the Sound Fix bar, hence the name, RIP). It’s really a lot of fun, and I recommend anyone in the area to check it out. There’s a theme each month and it’s pretty general so you can go about it however you want. Last month’s theme was Television, and I thought I came up with a pretty good mix. You can check out the tracklist here. I tried to use mainly artists who host TV shows which I thought was pretty clever, however I forgot to add a song by Black Sabbath and/or Kelly Osbourne and Xzhibit. Are there any other artists I forgot that host(ed) a TV show? And if you don’t know why I included a song, feel free to ask in the comments and I will more than gladly show off my nerdiness elaborate. This month’s theme is “Songs from other countries.” I seem to have a lot of songs in French and Japanese, so I may try and do a mix of those two. Or I can just indulge my inner anglophile and make a Britpop mix, but that’s too easy!

I’m going to see if I can add some voice posts on here to be able to update y’all a little more in real time, since I don’t think I’ll be able to really sit down at a computer until next week. So keep an eye out for those!

– Alix!